How will the dramatic ticket increase impact your season ticket purchase?

[Sports_Realist]

I think the U of M should have gone for a single price between the 2016 and 2017 amounts to be effective the 2016 season and not bothered with incremental rises in fees. Some money would be left on the table, but the sticker shock would be alleviated somewhat while the impacted fans would have additional time to consider options and possibly set money aside for the purchase. I say this as someone whose seats do not have a donation requirement.

The suggestion that there needed to be something value added so that it wasn't just "give us your money, we give you your seats" was absolutely on target. People needed to feel loved in a situation like this and the love definitely wasn't felt. The U of M thought more about what it wants, and it must be said also needs, without considering the two way aspect of the transaction.

 

[MinneStoa]

A little bit of good news, I just got email confirmation that the ticket office is still doing the Recent Alumni season ticket offer. $200 for upper level tickets for anyone that has graduated within the last three years. They didn't specify whether these tickets would be included in the donation scale, however. I'm planning to call later today to find out.

 

[Gopher07]

A little bit of good news, I just got email confirmation that the ticket office is still doing the Recent Alumni season ticket offer. $200 for upper level tickets for anyone that has graduated within the last three years. They didn't specify whether these tickets would be included in the donation scale, however. I'm planning to call later today to find out.

That's great news. Hopefully they keep that up.

 

[GraniteCityGopher]

Like many, am a long time fan (twenty year season ticket holder + many more years a student and fan) that has watched a lot of bad football over the years. Two years of winning football does not merit this type of increase and makes the "maintain or reduce" decision easy. Coming on the heals of this year's "parking gate" faux pax, I really question whether the department understands the fan base or cares!

Simply too much, too quickly!

It appears that the athletic department prefers an itinerant corporate seat occupant and B1G Network revenue sharing, over long-term, deep rooted, fans. Maybe they've run the numbers, and they can eek out more revenue with that fan mix. But, with over 50% of dedicated fans (GHers) answering the poll electing to reduce or eliminate ticket holdings, I'm wondering if they'll use seat holders to show well on the Network and disguise the 20 thousand or so that will show up for a late November game with temps in the teens?

 

[MinneStoa]

A little bit of good news, I just got email confirmation that the ticket office is still doing the Recent Alumni season ticket offer. $200 for upper level tickets for anyone that has graduated within the last three years. They didn't specify whether these tickets would be included in the donation scale, however. I'm planning to call later today to find out.

Update: all of the recent alumni tickets are in the $0 donation section (zone 6, I guess?). So they're not great seats, but $200 is still a steal for season tickets, especially after the hikes.

 

[gopherdudepart2]

The current tier structure that the U of M plan showed yesterday is not equitable in designating luxury seating and scholarship seating in scope. In my opinion they are undervaluing early on in the process the most desireable seats with the best views to get people used to them before they really hit you with that $2,500 to $2,000 a year level increase after 2017. To me they also underestimated the existing resentment in the fan base for all of the years of steeply discounting tickets to the general public and offering seating deals, $10 dollar seats, buy one get one free and all of that couponing they have been doing. Those same coupon deals that were not available to the season ticket base and offered very little incentives or luxury items beyond hey if your a Gopher football fan you should buy season tickets.

Looking at the existing charts from the email we got yesterday, they are going to be many empty seats in zone 3 seatings, these are simply not luxury seats just because there is a chairback, many that get obstructed views because the next section over is impeding the view and are furthest away from periphreal desireable things like seeing Goldy or hearing the band. $500 a year extra to sit near goaline per games costs $125 each adding non-conference games isn't going to make these seats very desirable.
The Twins have found out, especially since they have been fielding lousy to mediocre teams, even though they limit those cheaper tickets and make those zones the smallest areas in the stadium, they are still what many will buy and a lot of seats on unequitable value go unsold because the views are not favorable enough to justify the costs. The market will only pay what it can bear, and if value is not perceived people are not going to pay it. 8-4 and 9-3 records are not going to cut it at these price levels and will put a lot of pressure on the team.
I anticipate more demand based pricing and much higher costs for so-called premium games in the coming years, want to see Ohio State $175 dollars likely for a single tickets is not going to be unreasonable. This is just the start of it higher costs year over year for fans.

 

[rickyupchurch]

We have had our tickets since 1953 and it has been fun but I guarantee we aren't renewing. $500 extra a seat was as high as we were ever going.

 

[GophersInIowa]

I am not in the camp that this increase was a mistake...had to happen. I don't understand why the U would announce the 2016 and 2017 increases before the 2015 ticket purchase period. They basically have created two negatives...one is that people who know they can't afford the 2017 prices will be dropping before 2015 and two, they have locked themselves into the second and third increases when ultimately they want some flexibility if the increases don't go well or if something happens next year and Kill and Co take a dump.

My guess is that the increases in donations is tied to some type of funding (bonds) for the new facilities and they need to show that they are going to increase revenue to get the U to support selling the bonds.

What I am hoping is that within the next week they announce the "breaking ground" date on the football practice facility and the full funding of the entire project with a timeline for completion. Would take the sting off a little bit.

Wont help those that can't afford the cost of attending games, but that is what happens. People make choices, can't afford everything they want and life goes on. There are other options than season tickets and we all know that if they ticket sales drop way off and the Gophers don't perform, there will be $20 tickets laying on the ground outside the stadium. If the Gophers win, then the U will get its money and some of us will only be able to attend one or two games per year.

But the drama and personalization by some of you is a bit over the top. Maybe this is a mistake, maybe not...time will tell. Best of luck to the Gophers in their bowl game...hoping for Outback so I can go!

I don't get that either. Doesn't make sense to me. They could have planned for this to happen but only announce 2015 for now.

 

[5$BitsOfBrokenChair]

I will pick up some extra tix in the good seats that people will be vacating.

 

[FreakyDeke]

I don't get that either. Doesn't make sense to me. They could have planned for this to happen but only announce 2015 for now.

Maybe they thought it would be better to drop one HUGE bomb and get on with it than 3 big bombs? Still dumb.

 

[MNVCGUY]

It will be very interesting to track the renewal numbers this year as they are released. Based on the surveys done on Gopherhole and in the Star Tribune there will be a significant dip in the number of renewals. If that happens the U is going to find themselves in a tough spot because there is not a waiting list of people dying to get their hands on some tickets.

If the on the field product takes a step back the U could find themselves in a real tough spot with high priced season tickets that nobody wants.

 

[Magic]

 

[mnsportsgeek]

A little bit of good news, I just got email confirmation that the ticket office is still doing the Recent Alumni season ticket offer. $200 for upper level tickets for anyone that has graduated within the last three years. They didn't specify whether these tickets would be included in the donation scale, however. I'm planning to call later today to find out.

Just keep your student ID and buy student tickets. It worked flawlessly for me.

 

[row19gopher]

I'm in Zone 2, seriously thinking about Zone 3... The first year isn't bad, but then it gets a little steep.

 

[Lakeville Goldy]

This year there were games we couldn't go to and we struggled to GIVE the tickets away. If I had to decide today I very well might just drop completely. I'm extremely upset.

The worst for me is I'm in the last row of zone 3. By a factor of one row the expected donation doubles. I understand there has to be a line. But had I had any inkling this would be coming back in 2009 I would have chosen one row back.

Frankly, the Gopher Athletic Department treats their customers like garbage. It's like they keep working to find ways to make it a worse experience. And now they want us to pay more for that privelege?

The funniest is how they have a graph of scholarship cost per year from the mid '90's but they conveniently didn't show the graph of TV revenue from the mid '90's, which I would bet is probably well over a factor of 20X higher.

And expected to perhaps DOUBLE in 2017.

The other thing is, frankly, I could care less what the scholarship costs are for non-revenue sports. If you can't support them, cut them. And yes you CAN cut women's sports as long as you also cut men's. Don't penalize me for enjoying a sport that actually makes money.

I live here. I went to the U. I am from here. The U is part of me. Norwood has a job. If he gets a better offer tomorrow he will leave and never think about MN again. He wasn't there for the 2003 Michigan collapse. He wasn't there for the 2005 blocked punt against Wisconsin. He wasn't there for the 2006 Insight Bowl. He didn't live through Wacker or Brewster. He wasn't adversely affected by more poor decisions than I could possibly list. If he hoses this up and the stadium is empty his worst case is he gets bought out, paid not to work and hired somewhere else, probably at the same salary. He'll tell his future employer how MN doesn't support their teams and blame the media and fan base and show the study that said they should jack prices.

The U has proven more times than I can count that it could screw up a one car parade. And now they want to effectively increase my ticket price by 150%? No.

 

[2727Gopher]

I'm in Zone 2 and there's NO WAY I'm keeping those seats now. When my turn for renewal comes up, if there are no-donation seats available I'll move to those. If not, I'll just buy tickets on the secondary market from now on.